More than 10,000 hectares of forest are in charge of only one ranger.
With 10,278 hectares of forest land, Muong Tung (Muong Cha district) is one of the 7 communes in the province with a forest area of 10,000 hectares or more. The forest area is large, the terrain is steep, and travel is difficult, but the whole commune has only 1 forest ranger in charge of the area. To manage and protect the forest most effectively, according to Mr. Dieu Vuong Cuong, the forest ranger in charge of Muong Tung commune, along with advising the Party Committee, the government and coordinating with forces in implementing forest management, protection and development, it is mostly necessary to be close to the people and stick with the people to get information about forestry activities in the area.
Not only in Muong Tung, the whole province currently has 5 communes including: Leng Su Sin, Muong Nhe, Chung Chai, Sin Thau (Muong Nhe district) and Pa Tan (Nam Po district) are also in a similar situation when there is only 1 local forest ranger who has to "shoulder" more than 10,000 hectares of forest. The work is difficult and arduous, even facing many dangerous situations, but with the responsibility of the job and passion for the profession, the local forest rangers have strived to overcome all to complete the task well.
For Mr. Bac Cam Trung, a forest ranger in charge of the commune, who has spent more than 3 years working in the forests of Sen Thuong border commune, Muong Nhe district, the most memorable experience is probably the 2-3 day forest patrol trips. Mr. Trung said: There are forest areas of the commune bordering China, where drones are not allowed to be used for field inspection, so we have to go there to patrol the forest. There was a forest patrol trip, although the distance was less than 10km, it took 2 days because the patrol route was mainly walking along streams and steep cliffs. On such long trips, the team had to build a banana-leaf hut, sleep in the forest overnight and continue the journey the next day.
It is known that in Sen Thuong, although there are currently 2 forest rangers in charge, they are assigned to manage the commune with the largest forest area in the province, over 13,305 hectares. Therefore, Mr. Trung and his colleagues are having to work twice or three times harder than they can to complete their tasks and manage the entire assigned forest area.
Discussing the story of the lack of human resources in the Forestry sector with Mr. Ha Luong Hong, Head of the Provincial Forestry Sub-Department, we were informed: The whole province currently has more than 415,361 hectares of forest with 128/129 communes, wards and towns having forests. The number of assigned staff of the unit is 222 people, but currently there are 213 staff, of which the commune forest ranger staff is 121 people. Based on the existing forest area, the complexity, nature, characteristics and scale of operations; scope and service objects; professional and technical management process according to the provisions of specialized laws; job positions and workload of each job position, the actual situation of using the assigned staff, the provincial Forestry sector is still short of 193 staff. Lacking people to manage and protect forests, many local forest rangers are having to work many times harder than the prescribed tasks.
Difficulties to be resolved
To compensate for the shortage of staff, the provincial Forestry Department has been implementing many flexible solutions, such as: improving the professional skills of local forest rangers, providing facilities to capture information, and rotating young forest rangers to the grassroots level.
For example, balancing the allocation and arrangement of assigned staff to be effective and appropriate. Accordingly, in areas with small forest areas, favorable conditions and terrain, and few complicated forestry law incidents, the Forest Protection Department will arrange for 1 forest ranger to be in charge of 2 communes, wards, and towns. According to information from the Provincial Forest Protection Department, at this time, the whole province has 21 forest rangers in charge of 2 communes, wards, or more to fill the gap due to the shortage of human resources.
Another solution that the Forestry Department also focuses on is to increase the application of science and technology , information technology to help reduce labor. Currently, in addition to using GIS remote sensing technology, the Provincial Forestry Department has installed mobile software for 100% of forest rangers; equipped 10/10 Forestry Departments with flycams and handheld walkie-talkies; and specialized departments have invested in installing 3 automatic forest fire warning signs at the Forestry Departments: Nam Po, Muong Nhe and Dien Bien.
Despite many flexible solutions, the shortage of forest rangers will create a "gap" leading to numerous difficulties in forest management and protection. In reality, the situation of violations of forestry laws is increasingly complicated, while having to be in charge of many areas at the same time or having to manage tens of thousands of hectares of forest, local forest rangers can hardly handle all the assigned work. According to statistics from the Forestry Department, in 2021, the whole province had 319 violations of the Forestry Law; in 2022, there were 358 cases. Since the beginning of 2023, the whole province has had 345 violations.
For many years now, increasing the staffing level for the Forestry sector has encountered many difficulties due to the implementation of staff streamlining according to the general policy. In addition, in the period of 2018 - 2023, the whole sector had 10 people requesting to transfer jobs and 1 person requesting to resign, making the human resource shortage even worse. Mr. Ha Luong Hong added: The unit has proposed not to reduce the staffing level of civil servants of the Forestry Sub-Department in the period of 2023 - 2026; at the same time, it is recommended to consider adding resources to ensure task requirements, in accordance with local practical conditions, in which priority is given to arranging enough forces for forest rangers at the commune level.
In fact, forest protection is not only the responsibility of the forest rangers, but also the responsibility of the whole society. However, as the core force, the problem of human resources for the Forestry sector also needs to be solved soon.
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